St. Jude the Apostle Catholic School Library in the Spotlight!

Karyn Greer's visit

 By Eleonora Straub

Tucked away in Sandy Springs, GA is St. Jude the Apostle Catholic School.  The St. Jude Library and Media Center serves the teachers and 511 students in grades k-8.  Our amazing collection has over 20,000 items including books, e-books, A/V resources (DVDs, CDs and playaways), periodicals for faculty and students, as well as electronic databases (EBSCO, World Book Online, Grolier, Gale and Nettrekker).   There are nine computer stations and eight laptops available for searching online library catalog, working on research projects, taking Accelerated Reader Quizzes and word processing.  Everything supports the school mission statement of “Nurturing the formation of Saints and Scholars”.

Every school day at St. Jude the Apostle Catholic School begins with the morning news show which is broadcasted live from the Media Center throughout the school.  It is run by Middle School students who interview teachers and students to write their anchor reports.  The WSJA News is a unique learning experience for many students who enjoy working behind the scenes with the cameras and sound/video mixing equipment.

Our library often hosts author visits and celebrity guest readers.  This year, the St. Jude Library welcomed the local authors Eileen Jedlicka, Cassandra Jones and Cheryl Mure.  Celebrity guest readers included television personalities Fred Kalil and Karyn Greer, Dunwoody Mayor Mike Davis and Dr. Diane Starkovich, the superintendent of Atlanta Archdiocese.

LEGOs in the Library week

Besides weekly library classes, students enjoy a variety of fun activities.  During LEGOs in the Library week students can bring their LEGO creations to display and tell their classmates about their work.  Second grade girls attended an American Girl Doll Tea Party in October, while second grade boys were invited to a Hall of Fame sports celebration a few weeks later.  Students were asked to read a book (either an American girl book or a sports book from the series), take and pass AR quiz, and bring their American girl doll or the sports award to share at the party.

Students in grades 3-6 participate in the annual Archdiocese wide Battle of the Books competition.

Battle of the Books

 Children form teams and read books from the lists provided by the catholic school librarians.  In spring, classroom and school competitions are held before the final competition in May.  Last year our 6th grade team won.

St. Jude the Apostle Catholic library is a comfortable and welcoming facility.  With an LCD projector and screen, it serves as a meeting place for the Technology Club, the Future City competition teams and the No Place for Hate presentations.  We submitted twenty two student projects to GA Student Media Festival, seven qualified for the International Student Media Festival, five received an Excellence in Media Production awards and two out of these five were recognized as Judges’ Favorite.  One of our Future City teams won first place in the GA regional competition this year, along with four special society awards.  The team, Ark City, went on to Washington, DC, to represent Georgia in the National Future City competition and won a special society award for Most Sustainable Buildings.